After reading through two strongly worded lawsuits filed this week against Cadence Bancorp LLC and Encore Bancshares Inc., one thing seems clear: The plaintiffs are angry.

Their targets are Cadence and Paul Murphy, the bank’s president and CEO, whom they accuse of "arrogance, double standards and an utter disregard for the integrity of a promise," in the court documents. The lenders’ Houston attorney, Rusty Hardin — who often defends high-profile clients such as Roger Clemens — said the lawsuits have “a sense of outrage,” though neither lender really wanted to sue.

The lawsuits allege that Murphy “denied his employees the very same type of change-in-control compensation he previously received himself” from Houston-based Amegy Bank NA, where he once served as CEO. Change-in-control compensation can be triggered after the sale of a company when an employee sees a significant change in responsibility or benefits.

The suit also states that each plaintiff “brings this suit for breach of contract only, as there is no stand-alone cause of action for rank hypocrisy.”

The suits were filed on behalf of Carmen Jordan, former chief lending officer at Houston-based Encore Bank NA, and Bennett Douglas, who led Encore’s commercial lending divisions, alleging Cadence and Murphy have not paid them change-in-control compensation in connection with Cadence’s deal to buy Encore.

The lawsuits allege that the employment practices of Cadence and Murphy “have driven over 20 Encore employees to depart since the acquisition,” and that Jordan and Douglas “had reason to distrust the motives of Cadence and Murphy when it came to former employees of Encore," according to the lawsuits.

The day the acquisition was announced, a 2007 Severance Plan for Encore employees was allegedly “amended without notice to plan participants to dramatically reduce the amount of severance compensation. On information and belief, the amendment was done at the insistence of Cadence,” according to the lawsuits.

Jordan and Douglas departed the bank July 8 and July 11, respectively, just a few days after the Cadence deal closed. The bankers then joined the Houston office of Lafayette, La.-based IberiaBank. They allege Cadence is contractually obligated to pay Jordan about $1.1 million and Douglas about $750,000, but has not paid them for four months.

“Instead, Murphy and Cadence have dealt with Jordan’s straightforward contractual claim the same way they handled the Encore transition — with arrogance, double standards and an utter disregard for the integrity of a promise,” the lawsuits allege.

Court documents allege that Cadence and Murphy accused Jordan and Douglas of recruiting other colleagues to join them at another bank, which the plaintiffs say is untrue. The lawsuits allege that it is hypocritical for Cadence and Murphy to accuse Jordan and Douglas of recruiting colleagues to other banks when Cadence has allegedly “raided” competitors before and after the Encore deal, including at least 14 commercial and energy lenders from Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions’ Houston operations.

The deal was Murphy's big re-emergence into the Houston market, after he left the C-suite of Amegy in 2009 to become president and CEO of Houston-based Community Bancorp LLC, which later changed its name to Cadence.

The lawsuits seek to draw contrasts between Murphy's transition from Amegy to Community Bancorp and the alleged situation involving Jordan and Douglas, the former Cadence employees.

When Amegy was acquired by Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp. (Nasdaq: ZION) in 2005, Murphy received change-in-control compensation when he departed the bank for Community Bancorp.

The lawsuits allege that Murphy told leaders of Amegy he would not compete against the bank in Texas.

“Despite all of this and his promise not to do so, Murphy began to solicit Amegy’s employees and clients. Amegy ultimately had to initiate a lawsuit against Cadence and Murphy to put a stop to these actions. Murphy’s treatment of Carmen Jordan is another example of his callous disregard for loyalty and contractual obligations,” the court documents state.